Chapter Text
The day had started pretty normal. When Vee Version 1 powered on, taking the cord out of her, she foresaw there's a 90% chance that today would be dull. As she could recall, she had no game show to host for a while and any other plans, besides Brightney’s welcome visits or Razzle and Dazzle’s (though mostly Razzle’s) constant letters, were nonexistent. Of course, no one could complain about having nothing to do. Being able to simply relax or spend time with friends without the impending dread of something to do later was a nice one. Unless you were a workaholic like Dyle who would probably tweak out with having nothing to do.
“It’s not all the time!” Vee was pulled out her thoughts by Ricky’s voice. The short greyish blue furred rat had her arms crossed, looking up at Rudie, who was taller than them both, in a half-heartedly annoyed way, long hairless tailed curled around her pink feet as so no would be unfortunate enough to trip. “I win our races sometimes.”
“Exactly, you win sometimes.” Rudie said with a smug look. “Which means I win a lot more than you lose. He had his elbow resting on top of Ricky’s head, making her ears fold down a bit. Vee noted the slightly annoyed ear flick, the look she gave to Rudie basically saying I’m letting you do this but not because I like it. It was a bit ironic, considering how much Ricky loathed physical touch. Not even her friends, or even a close friend like Vee was an exception to that. Rudie knew it too, yet he craved physical touch just as much as Ricky hated it. Vee knew that from information in the file she had him, information she collected on him simply by their interactions alone.
And yet he got away with it each time. Such a contradiction that defied all logic never failed to baffle Vee.
“It’s not bad, I’m sure I've won a decent amount of times.”
“Riight.”
A scoff from the midget rat. “I’m sure with my new tweak to my rocket shoes I’d win!”
Vee decided to pipe in at such a ridiculous claim. “Ricky, by all the data I've collected from your losses and wins against Rudie, your chances of winning are about less than 10%.”
“HAH-only 10%!?” Rudie’s laughter rang out in the halls.
“I..didn't think it would be that low.” She mumbled softly.
“Just admit it buddy, you’re never gonna have a high win rate.” He chuckled, pointing to himself with dramatic flourish. She huffed, ears dropping slightly. Rudie’s cocky expression faded slightly and he went from going from using her as an armrest to ruffling the fur on her head. “But hey, your rocket shoes are still cool and stuff.”
“Yeah..I guess.”
“I mean it!” Ricky gave him a look. “What, seriously I do!” He gave this goofy smile that even Ricky couldn’t help but smile softly in return, which made Rudie chuckle, then Ricky laugh, and then the two of them were both laughing away at each other.
She couldn’t help but think of how their relationship was, statistically, impossible. She could already list a few reasons;
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Their personalities clashed. Rudie was more energetic, loud, and optimistic. Ricky was much more quiet, reserved, and even narcissistic at times.
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Differing tastes. Ricky had a sweet tooth for pastries, cakes, chocolates, the like. Rudie was more of candy liking toon
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Even their body language. Ricky hated touch and Ruide loved it.
Yet she couldn’t deny how close they were. If someone were to present these toons to her as some sort of stat page, listing everything about them, she would have said them getting along is zero. Not less than one. Zero. She never would have thought such an anomaly could exist…yet an example of it was right in front of her. Ricky and Rudie were exceptions to logic it seems. The sight of them laughing away like idiots made Vee smile softly as well, mic tail wagging a bit behind her. As long as her friends were happy, she was happy.
“Hey you guys!” Vee inwardly finches at the new voice, her smile blinking away immediately and replaced with a frown. It was a voice she had to recognize, for just one wrong move could be fatal for her.
“Hey Finn!” Rudie uses his free hand to give a wave, the other one still resting on top of Ricky’s head.
Finn The Fishbowl. “Not the damn walking wet floor sign." Ricky muttered under her breath, loud enough for Vee to hear and oozing with disdain. Subconsciously Vee scooted a few inches away from Finn. Whether he noticed this at all he didn’t show it, but did smile warmly at the trio with his missing-toothed grin.
“Hey friends, just wanted to splash in and-”
Ricky stepped in between Vee and Finn, glaring up at the fishbowl. He wasn’t wearing his orange life jacket this time. Instead he was wearing a red hoodie covered in white fish patterns, paired with golden pants that had a white streak on the side. Vee was no fashion expert (though she could look up fashion tips if she wanted to) as the majority of her outfits were just different shades of green afterall, but the combination was rather an…interesting one to her, to say the least. He titled his head a bit as Ricky got in front of him, the action making some water spill out of his head and even a few drops fly off his finned ears. Vee winced mentally at the sight.
“Five feet apart Finn.” Ricky said snappily. “I don’t want to do repairs on Vee after you get her wet again.” Confusion 1 appeared over Finn’s for a moment, but it disappeared as soon as it came and he put up both of his hands apologetically, one of them holding up a black and white striped notebook, covered in fish stickers. It also seemed to be a bit wet, but not enough to make the pages tear and dissolve. At least, that’s what Vee could decipher at first glance.
“Oh, sorry a-boat that, I minnow I-”
“Then back up.” Ricky cuts him off. Finn takes a few inches back. Ricky glares at him, the silence alone enough to make him keep going till he’s five feet away, almost tripping over his tail in the process in a moment of clumsiness. Vee could understand the eagerness to get away though. As quiet as Ricky usually was, she’s definitely had some spunk to her. Said spunk gets more scary when you’re on her bad side.
“Better.” Ricky huffed, rolling her eyes and standing between Vee and Rudie, fur bristling. Vee gave her a look that basically said Calm the fuck down. As much as she could understand the behavior, even she could see she was acting too strongly when Finn had done nothing wrong yet.
For now. The chance of something going wrong was always high.
Ricky gave her a look of her own that could be translated roughly to How can I with this idiot around? Ricky managed to calm down a tad after taking a deep breath however.
Finn looked between Ricky and Vee as if to establish he was now in the clear and continued. “Okay, so what I wanted to ask is a-boat you Vee. It has come to my at-tetra-ion, thanks to a certain gachapon, that you have never laughed at my puns before.”
Vee cringed inside with each sentence. Oh god…the fish puns. And once she thought Rudie and his christmas themed puns he did occasionally was bad. “ I just don't find them funny.” She answered simply, shrugging, hands in her pants pocket.
“Yeah and noth-fin wrong with that! I don’t expect everyone to like my fintastic puns, but you have not even krakened a smile at them even once!” He raised his index finger for added effect. Vee did a quick skim of her memory data. Yeah, that was true. “If this was Shrimpo we were talking a-boat then it wouldn’t water me but you aren’t him at all, so it has now become my mission to markel that true!” He points to his notebook. “I’ve come up with a ton of different jokes and puns just for you Vee. I betta at least one of them will make you laugh!” He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “If you’re willing to hear them of course.” He looks back at them with a grin. “So, up for the offer?”
Ricky scoffs, her glare making Finn almost small in comparison despite the clear height difference.
“As you’ve seem to have forgotten, whenever we have come in close proximity either one of four things will happen. One, the best option, nothing happens. Two, you manage to get a single drop of H20 in my systems and I fritz out, leading to Ricky having to do a check for damages and potential repairs if it gets that bad. Three, option two happens but we both get electrocuted, which is going to cause mass damage to both me and you. And of course, the fourth option, the worst out of the bunch.” She crosses her arms, finishing off dryly. “ I die.”
Finn seemed to cringe with each option listed, Vee’s last remark only nailing the head into the coffin. The response made Vee take a metaphorical step back and rethink her words. Perhaps she was being too harsh? She then pushed down the thought. This was about her safety, her snappyness was reasonable. It was logical.
“Minnow-” He clears his throat, avoiding her eyes. “I know that my forgetfulness has caused a few problems in the past, but this time I’ll be extremely careful to make sure nothing bad happens this time. I cod-could keep my cork on to make sure no water spills out. I don’t know how I’m always so damp all that time, “ He gives a dry chuckle. “ but I can even dry myself off so in case we do touch, no sparks will fly. “ He looks Vee in the eyes with a hopeful, but determined look. “ Our interactions haven’t been the best in the past and I take full blame for it! But I want to change that…if you’ll give me a chance to try and make things right.”
Wow…Vee was taken aback by his speech. She had always seen Finn as the carefree toon who didn't really put a lot of thought into what he did, always randomly cracking jokes despite what others thought of them. She had never seen him act so serious about, well, anything before, nonetheless something regarding her. Her tail sways softly behind her as she thought, going over calculations with the new information she was provided with about him. Definitely worth adding to her character files..
Ricky glances at Vee, then does a double take. “I know that look. You can't seriously be considering this right?
“I have nothing else to do today.” Vee replies. “Why not.” Ricky's eyes widened in shock. Even Rudie was confused, as evident by the Confusion 1 above his head.
Finn gave out a surprised wha- before composing himself and saying “Really? Like, you mean it??”
“Do I need to clarify my words better?” Was she not clear enough, perhaps?
“No no no need for that!” His eyes sparkle and he gives her a big smile. “ I’m just reel-ly eel-cited by your answer is all, heh.” Ah yes, the puns came back again. Great.
“He’s quite literally the cause of the majority of your repairs!” Ricky blurted out, dumbfounded. “This is screaming bad idea in each and every way!!”
“He’s being as careful as he can.“ Vee attempted to assure her, looking between all three of them. She should have expected such a reaction, especially from Ricky, yet it still caught her off guard a bit by how strong it was from all parties. “Like he said, I’ll want to give him a chance. You can chew him out as much as you want if something goes wrong.” Ricky rolls her eyes, huffing.
“You bet I will.” She then addresses Finn, stepping closer to the fishbowl. “Fine, you can go with her. But mark my words, I swear if she comes back smoking cause you did something to her-”
Rudie pushes Ricky’s snout gently away from Finn to put some distance between them. “I think he gets it Ricky.” He replied in such a calm tone Vee rarely saw him due to him always being giddy and filled with energy. Ricky seemed to pause for a moment, then sigh, her fur relaxing and no longer bristling.
“I strongly agree.” Vee said along with Rudie, watching as Finn also gave out a sigh, looking a bit more relieved. She noted how scared he seemed of Ricky earlier. How amusing. “Though I appreciate the concern, I can take care of myself. I know what I’m getting myself into.”
“Yeah yeah, just making sure he doesn't forget that either.” She shakes her head. “I still think this is a bad idea. “ She grumbles, heading to her room and opening the door. “I’m going to chill in my room for now, if you come back needing repairs today don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I'm coming too!” Rudie exclaimed, slipping through the door past Ricky.
Ricky rolled her eyes. “Of course you are…” She said with sarcasm. “I meant by myself silly.” Yet Vee noticed the softness in her tone and how she didn’t put up any more efforts for him to leave. “I’ll cya later Vee.” She then closes the door behind her.
Now it was just Vee and Finn mostly alone in the hallway together.
“Jeez-never getting on her bad side again. I didn’t even know the rat had it in her.”
Vee shrugs. “She means well, usually she doesn't get all worked up like that.”
Finn stuffed his hands in his packers, swaying nervously on his feet. Vee fidgeted with her bowtie.
“Soo…” Vee jumps a bit and turns her head slightly to look at him. “Meet up at Projector later?”
“Isn’t that for movies?”
“Yeah but it can be for hanging out too! Unless you want to meet up at your place. Mine is uh…usally wet.”
“That wouldn’t be ideal. If an accident were to happen there, I’d have no place to rest till it was dried. I don’t like the idea of water entering one of my few safe spaces anyway." She looks him up and down, eyes narrowing slightly. “Including you.”
“Fair point-Projector it is then! I’ll sea you there Vee!” And with that, he turns on his heels, the move almost getting a few drops of water on Vee. She managed to quickly stumble away from the droplets of death but it was still a close one.
“Ugh-Finn!” Finn looked back, blinking, with Confusion 1. “You nearly got me wet.”
“OH-I so sorry, I’ll be much mora careful when we meet up!” He turned, more carefully this time, and walked towards the elevators. “Promise!”
Vee sighs, checking her internal clock. One hour from now was 10:22 AM. Her room wasn’t on this floor so she technically needed to go into the elevators too, but she didn’t want another accident to happen in the elevator. There was a very high chance for that afterall, about 90%. She could wait a bit.
She really hoped she wouldn’t regret this absurd idea of an encounter.